Just Being Brothers
Just Being Brothers
Prostate Cancer - Awareness, Prevention, and Survival Stories
Did you know that African-American men are at a higher risk for prostate cancer, with an expected 299,000 new cases in 2024 alone? Join us for a crucial conversation on Just Being Brothers as we return from our hiatus with our associate producer, Deuce, to shine a light on prostate cancer awareness and prevention. We share our personal experiences and highlight the importance of regular physical exams and early detection, which can significantly improve survival rates. Our discussion is backed by alarming statistics and emphasizes the dire need for proactive health measures to combat this disease. We urge our listeners to prioritize their health and undergo regular screenings to catch potential issues early.
Our episode aims to debunk common myths about prostate cancer, including misconceptions about its causes, and stresses the importance of understanding genetic changes that lead to the disease. We delve into the significance of PSA tests and digital rectal exams, especially for men over 40, and share personal stories about diagnosis and treatment options like hormone therapy and active surveillance. We also celebrate the resilience of cancer survivors like Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, who inspire hope and proactive health management. Tune in for an informative and heartfelt discussion that underscores the importance of staying informed and taking charge of your well-being.
Thank you. All right, we are back one more time. One more time. This is little brother Steve, this is big brother Mike, and we are doing another episode of Just being Brothers, and today we are pleased to have with us.
Speaker 2:Our associate producer Deuce.
Speaker 1:And the crowd goes wild. How are you doing today, Deuce?
Speaker 2:Good, good, good, all right, good, good, all right. Well, sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 1:Make sure we're doing the right thing okay and using the words correctly. Can you do that for us?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir Great, that's good, appreciate it. Hey, we, yes, sir, great, that's good, appreciate it. Hey, we've been away. We said we're glad we're back. We always say we're back, but we've been away for a while. Steve's got a lot of to say requests for his he's an educator, for his time as an educator, and I have to tell you that I've had to fight some health situations that took me back, and one of them is one I had a couple, but the one that's most crucial and the one that I'm glad I got a hold of is I was a victim, not a victim, but I had prostate cancer.
Speaker 1:Prostate cancer the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States.
Speaker 2:Second leading, other than skin cancer. And we're so blessed because if you're going to get cancer today and we lost our dad to cancer, we lost our grandmother, my mom's mother to cancer and a lot of other people, almost anybody you know, millions Know somebody in their family or close friend that lost their life to cancer. But for men, you know, prostate cancer is like breast cancer Only men can get it. Breast cancer only women can get it. Prostate only men can get it. But there's a couple of things that people should know because it hits in general one in eight Americans, but of course the way things go for African-American men it's one in eight, one in eight, okay, so it's like twice as many. I'm sorry, one in eight overall, one in four black men, but all men are at risk of getting prostate cancer just by doing one thing growing older. Growing older. You know, you usually hear and I met one guy. He said he had it at 55. But most folks are over 60, 65 when they get hit with this disease.
Speaker 2:And why do you get it? A number of things Family history, okay, what does your family say, what's happening in your family. Exposure to chemicals I don't have that. And of course, race, which baffles me, steve, because race is not a real thing. Race is a social hierarchy that's been constructed to differentiate people Exactly. There's no medical thing or biological thing that makes race a thing, right, in fact even going back before slavery there was no real race.
Speaker 1:No, they were known by the country that you were from, exactly the country the English, the British, the Irish.
Speaker 2:Exactly the Nubians, I forget what they called us, the Spaniards they had these antiquated names, yeah, but there was no black and white. You can look back and see old paintings and old drawings and you'll see black people on the street reveling with everybody else. It's only when it became to American money was prevalent, people said wait a minute, we want all of this, we don't want to share any of it, so I don't know why they use race. Unfortunately, like I said, black men are developing it at a higher rate and, of course, dying of it at a higher rate, and that's the thing I want to speak on. Here's a few stats that I hope they scare you.
Speaker 2:Okay, 299 new cases of prostate cancer are expected to be developed or diagnosed in the year 2024. 299,000 is almost the population of Shreveport, louisiana. So a city, a city size, a city, okay, a city of people will be diagnosed. Okay, man is diagnosed with prostate cancer every two minutes. We already said one in eight will be diagnosed, but of course, one in four black people will be diagnosed with it. 335,000 men are expected to die from prostate cancer in 2024. And you know, that's what makes me go hallelujah, because, as things look, night right now, bro, steve, I'm not going to be one of them. Okay, and that's a good thing. We can talk about why and why we can keep ourselves from being one of them. We talked about a man every 15 minutes a day.
Speaker 2:There are more than 3.3 million prostate cancer survivors. Put my name on that list. The relative survival rate for prostate cancer if it is diagnosed in its earliest stages which mine was, because I'm a physical person, I get my physical. Since I was 40 years old, which is a long time ago, I started getting a physical every year. And, of course, the five-year rate for early diagnosis 99%, 99% of the people diagnosed with this early get it checked out early, steve survive, Survive for at least another five years 34% 34, almost a third of the people who find out about cancer when it's become metastatic or spreading to other parts of the body 34% of the people live. So that is something that people who have not been taking cancer and your health seriously that you actually should.
Speaker 2:Well, what can you do? I'm going to talk about what we can do and also talk about some of the things they have to treat it. We already talked about this. I always repeat it again 1.7 times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than white men, 2.1 times more likely to die from it. So, even though 1.7 men are diagnosed, more than that die, which means we're not taking care of it. And how do we do that? How do we take care? How do we take care of them when we know that such a high number of black men will be getting it? And the number one thing folks, get your physical, get your physical. And I know men in general, black men in particular, for some reason shy away from getting physicals, from going to the doctor. I don't know if it's a macho thing. Do you know anything about that, steve? Are you a doctor guy? One more time Are you a doctor?
Speaker 1:guy, Do you go to the doctor? I am not a doctor guy, but I do go and all my diagnoses have been good so far.
Speaker 2:There's like five of us brothers and sisters, and Steve is the healthiest one. I think everybody else has got some kind of medication. That's me knocking on the table. I hear you and I'm with you. So continue to do that, man, because you get to a certain age that everybody's got something. I always say that a little bit of sickness is what God charges us for. If you want to live a long time, okay. If you're going to live a long time, god says okay, you can live a long time. I'm going to give you a little bit of this. You might get a little bit of that, but, man, I'll give you credit for that. Bro, you're doing really well.
Speaker 2:Hispanic men those listening in all right. 1.9 Hispanic men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's a little bit less. However, it's most commonly diagnosed with Hispanic Latino men. Hispanic men are less likely to be diagnosed with and die from prostate cancer than non-white Hispanic men, so something in their situation makes it a little different. However, in the prostate mortality among Latino men 40% of them it's 40% higher in Puerto Rico and I think that's because a lot of Puerto Ricans are African. Puerto Rico is where people often dropped off slaves and, of course, there's always been mixing with slaves and non-slaves. Well, mike, you know, I've heard it's painful, I've heard this there's a lot of, there's a lot of. It's called a street level diagnosis. Ok, bootleg doctors giving information. What was that piece that someone told you, steve, that?
Speaker 1:most men who come in contact with prostate cancer because they've had a lot of sex in their lives, so they've had a lot of women or they're involved in sex activity a lot.
Speaker 2:No medical proof for it, Just something that someone says. But many times people take these things seriously. Okay, Act like this is the honest to goodness truth. And you know, oh no, I ain't got to worry about getting a man because I don't have. I haven't had that much sex in my life, so I don't have any worries about that.
Speaker 1:And that's just not true. Lucky for you, you're a lucky guy.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe, maybe I don't know, but that means I'm not going to. But that's not true. It can come from anywhere, usually at any age. So I'm telling people number one thing you should do is get your physical. If, in fact, you get hold of your prostate cancer early, there's a couple of things that people can do. Okay, they have a thing that's called. First of all, you got your choice of hormone therapy, where you just are treated on hormones for a while. You have your choice of being able to just do what I did for you and that's just wait. It's called active surveillance, where you just quietly watch it. We did that with me for a year and then we decided folks, maybe we need to take a look at this. Then, once you decide that you have to do something the most radical and one that guarantees that it won't be coming back because prostate cancer can return the one that is the most radical is have your prostate removed. Okay, that makes sense, but go ahead, steve.
Speaker 1:So that's what I'm looking into as we start. So doctors do not know what causes prostate cancer. Nope, all right. So in their diagnosis they say that the cancer begins when cells in the prostate develop change in their DNA. All right, the DNA contains the structures that tell the cell what to do. These changes tell the cells to grow and divide more rapidly than normal cells do. So that I thought was kind of interesting. They really don't know why or where it comes from. All right, another thing is the risk factor. Aggressive prostate cancer is virtually nonexistent in men under 40. With age, however, the risk of developing prostate cancer increases. According to the American Cancer Society, about 60% of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over 65. So that 25-year period after you turn 40, that's when it seems to start to develop the most. That's the time you start getting less sex?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Speak for yourself.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry, here we go, all right, so a diagnosis Remember he's the good looking one, I'm the smart one, so maybe he is.
Speaker 1:The diagnosis. The two most common screen tests for prostate cancer are the prostate specific antigen. Cancer are the prostate-specific antigen PSA test and the digital rectal exam. All right, so if you're going to go get it, these are the things you're going to have to test on. All right, I've had a couple done myself. So far, so good. Good, All right. The risk factors Did I go over the risk factors? No go ahead, I did. I did go over the risk factors. No, go ahead, I did go over the risk factors.
Speaker 1:So if you're over 40, your risk is higher than if you're under 40.
Speaker 2:And that's true for a lot of things. They just don't happen to be as deadly as cancer Ignoring it. And there's also ways to begin to ask your doctor If your doctor's not doing. Once you hit 40, steve or above and I've got a son that's going to be 40, I guess, in a few years, and one that's going to be 50, and he's already beginning to have his test begin to ask your doctor can I have my PSA test? Your PSA number should be someplace down around zero, okay, and mine was up just just above 10. It goes a bit higher than that.
Speaker 1:uh, ask your doctor to check it for you so other possible early signs of prostate cancer include unusual weak urine flow and unexplained pain around the prostate while sitting oh, I didn't know about that. If cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland. Men may experience swelling in the lower body, back, hip or bone pain, abnormal bowel or urine habits or unexplained weight loss.
Speaker 2:And you know, steve, I didn't have any of those. How about that? I didn't have any of those, and you're right. And the other thing you'll find that's another key is and I've seen this is you run to the bathroom, you get to the bathroom and nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know that feeling.
Speaker 2:I can recall numerous times I'd go to the public men's room and there's somebody there, usually an older guy. He's standing there minding his business, doing what he does.
Speaker 1:I come in, take care of my business, zip up, wash my hands and leave, and he's still standing there Because mentally it's saying to your body I need to go to the bathroom, so you want to be there ahead of time, All right. And then you get there and the fluid has still not came and reached its destination to come out, so you're just standing there. Standing there Because you know it's coming. As soon as you zip up and walk out, boom, you know. And the sound of water can make you. We all know that the sound of running water can make men go to the bathroom sometimes. So maybe sometimes they're waiting for that sound or they may flush the toilet, you know, to start the flow. But yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. They're just standing there waiting, or the opposite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. They're just standing there waiting. Or the opposite end, steve. They go and they never get the feeling that they're finished yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, so they stand there as soon as I zip my pants up. I'm going to have to go, so they just sort of stand there hoping that maybe they'll get that one more. Those things are happening to you, along with blood in your urine stream or any kind of burning or stinging. Talk to your doctor. Don't pass that off. This is not the time to be macho, right, okay, this is not the time to be macho. There's a lot of things we can be macho about. We American men are, but it'll take anybody out at any time. Let me just give a list of people that we know in our lifetime the actor Bill Bixby, gone at 59, prostate cancer. Wow, who loves you, baby? Tell us about us.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Gone at 70, prostate cancer. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, rock star, 52 years old gone. Timothy Leary, father of LSD, gone at 75. Tiger Woods' dad, earl Woods, gone at 74. We can go on Donna Michie, francois Mitterrand. The French president, dick Sargent, remember Bewitched? Yes, sir, 64 years old, it will take you out. Notice, this is across the spectrum. It doesn't give you rich, poor French president of a country. Okay, this is what prostate cancer does. And because the biggest name is, of course, merv Griffin, who did a whole big show on it. He had recovered and cancer paid him back by coming back again and he died from that. A couple more Dennis Hopper, gary Cooper, jerry Orbeck, johnny Ramone of the Ramones, the great Langston Hughes, stokely, carmichael, even the racist Ty Cobb. Prostate cancer doesn't care. And so we got to get there. Get that physical, go ahead T Let me ask you so how did you discover that you had prostate?
Speaker 2:cancer? Great question, little brother. I'm a physical guy. I go get my physical. Since I was 40 years old, been going to get a physical and it got thrown off because of COVID. So in June of 22, I've been getting it in April, june of 22,. I Well, let me go back.
Speaker 2:My PSA is already up a little bit and I think it was a four and went to a six. My doctor's like whoa, that's a 50% increase. If it makes another move at all, you're going to a urologist. Come back a year later. Boom, now it's up at nine. Another 50% increase. Boom, that's it, we're gone.
Speaker 2:This is the process many of you will have. If you're fortunate enough, regardless, but especially if you're fortunate enough to catch it before it leaves and spreads, I'm very blessed. I don't know. I must have caught it the day after it happened. Anyway, once Steve met my urologist not an oncologist at the time urologist we did a blood sample and then we did a biopsy. They took 12 samples from my prostate from four different quarters, three samples from four different quarters, and three of those samples were cancerous. Sent them out to have it double-checked and it said yes, it's cancerous, but the good thing is one, it's early. It shouldn't be spreading and they're all in the same. Because it was cut into, it was sort of divided into four quadrants. All mine were in the same quadrant.
Speaker 2:At that time we decided I of course freaked out oh my God, I can come in and see. No, I need to come in. The guy says don't worry about it right now, make an appointment. We talked and we talked about it. This time let's go. It's called and you hear your doctors talk about it. It's called active surveillance and you watch it. What that meant is we just basically had two blood tests. Each blood test was creeping up a little bit more After a year. He recommended, but he didn't have to, because I was going to recommend time to do something. Didn't want to do surgery because you know, if you still love the ladies, that's gone once you have your prostate removed.
Speaker 2:For those people who don't know, the prostate is located in a funky place. It's really between your anus and where your penis is, where your testicles are. That soft skin in there? That was my next question. Yeah, that soft skin in between those. If you're a woman, guess what's there. That's where the BJJ is. That's why it's only for men In that soft area in there. That's where your prostate is. It also moves around and that's why they want you to continue to check it, because in that soft skin maybe one test doesn't tell you what you need to do. So we talked about it. I said, okay, I'm down to do it. Surgery I'm like no, I had a friend who had it. He said, mike, I went ahead and had my remove because it might come back. And he's right.
Speaker 2:My philosophy of living is I'm not going to live my life scared, afraid, especially if something that might happen.
Speaker 2:That's like me not driving my car because I might get in an accident.
Speaker 2:I might not. Second choice people have is radiation. They used to do radiation where you had to go five days a week for six weeks, okay, for about a 20-minute radiation series. That's changed. Then they had something called the seeds, where actual, not seeds like of a fruit, but small, tiny pellets were injected. Radiated pellets were injected into your prostate.
Speaker 2:I passed on that. I didn't want to do that. One of the things is because you've got that radiation in you six weeks after you have that you can't go around. Old people I mean, I'm an old people, but really more like fragile people, invalids or babies, because you're highly radiated. I didn't want that. The newest thing is what I had and it's called CyberKnife and they basically take all your measurements of your prostate from almost every different angle, line it up based on your health, your height, your weight, the medications you're on, the medications you're not on, how far you are into it, and they put in markers in your prostate, actual little gold things that are markers. That takes care of the outline and then you're going for five treatments and, steve, it was like the most painless thing.
Speaker 1:So what is it actually? Is it like a laser?
Speaker 2:Is it like I have what's called Cyberknife. You can look it up, folks. Cyberknife is not a knife, but what it is? You're exactly right. It's this huge machine that actually goes around and shoots radiation into your prostate from up to 50 different directions.
Speaker 1:That's amazing because your prostate is not that big, so 50 different directions is like the whole thing.
Speaker 2:That's why they had to have those markers in there before they started the whole thing. That's why they had to have those markers in there before they started. What they were finding is some of the old radiation treatment was good, but it was sometimes radiating things that didn't need to be radiated and missing other parts. That did because of the inexactness of the treatment, and so now it's called CyberKnife. It's not a knife. Five days, each session took about 25 minutes and yesterday I got my first any side effects? There are some. I was fatigued all the time, tired all the time, but now I'm good. So we'll see how my first numbers are.
Speaker 2:But folks, you don't want to have your life changed, turned upside down, with something that you can control. Get your butt to your physicals and have your doctor check your PSA. Know that PSA number Does. Any number you should know is your cholesterol, your blood pressure and your PSA number. Know those things and you know what's going on with prostate cancer. That's my story, you know.
Speaker 2:I just laid out some people who died from it. I'm trying to find it on my phone because it's awesome. Just sort of want to bring all doom and gloom. But we could talk about a couple of people, the two I can tell you right now Ben Stiller, the actor, and my boy, robert De Niro. These are guys who lived beyond Nelson Mandela. These are folks who caught it, had treatment and continue to live a full life until they die, but they didn't die of cancer. And the way my life is now, thank the Lord, I'm going to die one day, but the way it seems it won't be of cancer. Yeah, this has been just being Big Brothers. I hope this has been helpful. Hey, if you're ladies listening, tell your man Okay, this is little brother Steve, big brother Mike. Thanks for listening. Hey, take care of yourself, take care of your health, thank you.
